i've seen a set of Rockwells circulate around the hobby mud guys around here like a bad penny! 1st guy had 10b's(f&r)/8'' lift/42'' tsls..he bought all the stuff he needed/i welded the perches & shock mounts on for him & helped him w/the swap/pinion disc/hydro steering...he couldn't go places he used to go! they were a huge disappointment..their bulk&weight would sink him like the titanic..and was a b*%@#, pulling him out alot of times b/c it wanted to stay buried,..so he figured up how much coin he had in them and gladly sold them for for his $ back & put his 10b's back in after he regeared them!
2nd guy was just starting a rebuild..when he got the rocks, you could see stars in his eyes, he thought he was going to be the new alpha dog....he had not seen them in action & nobody talked about their performance. i told him exactly how they did, he replied "he's running a stock 350 w/ an auto tranny, i'm going to have a bad azz bbc & a manual trans, its gonna be bad!" he dropped coin on a new 12'' swamp runner lift kit 2 replace his 6'',..put his rocks in, built his bbc put a sm465/np205 behind it, had d-shafts built, he bought a different set of wheels w/beadlocks for the rocks and put new 44'' boggers on. and same old story, he couldn't go where he could b4 w/his 3/4 ton axles, it was a 3/4 ton originally and he had sold his axles to fund his build, he was really disappointed, wound up swapping the rocks and the rims he had bought for another set of 3/4 ton axles...then bought a set of wheels to put his new boggers on the 3/4 tons.
3rd guy had just gave up his 3/4 tons for the rocks, b/c he didn't wheel as much as the rest of us and drove them on the street, truck acted like it was hobbled in the goo...& was scary on the street...thats a quote from the guy! he sold them to guy #4 for $2k, by now several people had spent cash on these axles, and he bought another set of 3/4 tons, and regeared them and did a rear disc brake conversion.
4th guy, doesn't run w/ my circle but had heard the stories, & was sure he could get them to perform. he built his rig w/3/4 tons and was planning to just put the rocks under it. the rear rock was a steering axle, but was put together as a non-steering axle, he bought the stuff to have rear steer, he had them blasted and painted them up real nice and put them in his rig, i saw it in action...another bbc truck but had th400/np205...the rear steer helped them out some, but again they wouldn't do what the 3/4 tons would do, just to heavy for this mississippi river gumbo, he pulled them out and put in another set of 3/4 tons and again he had sold his original axles, so he had to regear and buy a locker to get back where he was at b4 the rocks. he tried for months to sell the rocks, but by now every1 had seen them go from 1 rig to another and had heard the stories...after 8 months a newb bought them and all the stuff people had bought to go with them.
guy#5...same set of axles, 5th rig they going into...he had a 78 blazer, put a 6" lift on it w/the rocks and 38's or 39.5's, it had a wore out sbc/th350/np205, they ate his trans 1st outing, never had been b4 so nothing to compare to/ he had trans rebuilt & rebuilt his 350 while he was down, the k5 floundered...again like he was dragging an anchor...bad enuff he put his whole k5 up for sale and quit muddin(he's into ricers now)
#6 bought the k5 at a deal considering...new motor and trans and what all had been done to/for the rocks...he was new to the game, so he didn't think they were that bad, altho we had to pull him 1/2 way thru our little pig trail back to our party spot that opens up to about a 25 acre field of mud, we have the farmers permission to go there and romp in the field, b/c we're inside the levee and it floods and stays a slop hole, the farmer doesn't even want his tractors out there, so he gave it to us to play in to keep people out his good fields...anywho this guy winds up swapping the k5 on rocks to/for another guy, who had a mid 90 sas'd king cab stepside truck(i think this was the best deal that ever came out of the rocks, i liked the sas'd truck, it looked good and wheeled good). but we're now to 6th rig & 7th owner of the rocks.
7th guy tries to wheel it sees how crappy they are in 3-4 ft of mud, he puts in a bbc, thinking more power would solve the problem, but it only added more weight and he was disappointed, pulled the rocks out and bought a 3/4 ton truck and made a trazer w/ 3/4 ton axles and suddenly his rig was pretty bad.
so the rocks are back on the block after 6 rigs and 7 owners, he winds up swapping them for axles out of a 78-79 ford hi-boy, hi-pinion d60, not sure what the rear is, but he swapped for the ford axles w/ plans on another sas'd truck..actually he's started that build and he's sas'n a mid 97 sport tahoe.
ok so now we're at guy #8, he has the right idea for the rocks i think, he's building a show truck/car crusher to also take to the tractor pulls. they suck in the deep goo, When i saw you could get hubs for them that change them to 8 lug on 6.5'' w/ discs, and how much weight they shed, i started to try and get them and put on these hubs, but before i got around to it i stumbled across a complete true k30 truck & bought it, possibly saving me from the rocks, and the d60/14bff is just sitting in my yard waiting, i was going to wait until i broke 1 of my 3/4 ton axles b4 swapping, but i recently thought about that, and if i go ahead and swap them, i could sell my 3/4 tons for the steering stuff i need to do the swap in the d60...i'm the only person around that has a passenger side drop d60...those are like hens teeth around here, it took me 3 yrs to find my set, so every1 runs 3/4 ton axles, which are still a little tough to find, which helps drive the prices...a set of good working 3/4 tons sell for about $800...i gave $750 for the whole k30, found it @ 3 hrs away sittin behind a farmers shop, finally..actually 3 yrs worth of searching turned up a decent set of 1 tons at a decent price! rocks...sink! unless you playin' on rocks, i would steer clear of rockwells! unless ur ready to spend alot of $, in the mud, they not so good!
